Alertness spiked within Xu Ying. Behind the slightly chubby maiden, a patch of azure sky suddenly rose straight from the ground, washed pure blue and dotted with a few drifting clouds.
"Perverted scoundrel, peeping at me while I bathe!"
With a sharp cry, she struck out with a palm. Azure sky and white clouds came howling forward, surging toward Xu Ying. Before the blow even reached him, the clear sky abruptly transformed into pressing dark clouds. Wind and thunder roared, throwing the four to five zhang around Xu Ying into a violent tempest!
"I'll beat you to death!" the chubby maiden's cry rang out from amidst the storm.
The instant the clear sky and white clouds turned into a raging storm, the might of her palm strike surged explosively, carrying the power to alter heaven and earth—something Xu Ying had never witnessed before.
Altering celestial phenomena could already be called a divine ability!
"You misunderstand, young lady, I wasn't peeping! I've been standing under this tree the entire time; I never went down the mountain!" Xu Ying hastily argued.
He took a shifting step back, but the parasol tree stood right behind him with nowhere left to retreat. Xu Ying immediately channeled the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing to execute the Dragon and Snake Double Walk, retreating up into the tree as his palms struck out one after the other to meet the girl's attack!
"Mang-gu!"
The dragon roared and the serpent hissed as the palm force of a dragon and snake surged into the tempestuous sky!
Their palm forces collided, the power of their respective Dao images erupting. Xu Ying sensed that the maiden's primordial qi was not particularly profound, yet her striking power was astonishingly ferocious—unreasonably, overwhelmingly fierce!
His primordial qi cultivation could suppress hers, but when her palm struck, the physical strength erupting from her flesh was far more brutal than his own, jolting him upward.
Xu Ying was secretly shocked. *This is an expert no weaker than me! Seventh Lord, if anyone beats me to death in the future, you'll take top credit! When I die, you can carry my head to the county magistrate's manor to claim a reward!*
The wind and rain behind the maiden suddenly cleared back into azure sky, which then shifted into pitch-black night. She sneered, "Not peeping? How do you know that my... my lower left side has a black mole? Even my mother doesn't know about it!"
At this point, a blush flooded her face. "H-How could you peek at... at that part of me? How long were you watching?"
Although it was broad daylight, behind the maiden lay deep darkness, like a night sky studded with stars.
*What kind of Nuo art is this?*
Just as the thought crossed Xu Ying's mind, the starry expanse began to rotate and swept toward him alongside her attack. It came once again with unmatched physical force; before it even touched him, his hands were trembling, sore and numb, his muscles seizing as if cramping!
Xu Ying channeled the Yang sound from the Eight Sounds of Primordial Nurturing. Pure yang primordial qi surged through his body, and amidst the resonance of the Dao sound, he met her with a punch. As fist and palm collided, Xu Ying scattered her primordial qi, yet the sheer impact left his right arm so battered he could barely lift it!
*How can a girl possess such absurd strength? This power is too pure—purer even than the Zhou clan's Vajra Indestructible Body!* Xu Ying marveled inwardly.
This was pure physical power.
Even if a girl was on the plumper side, it was impossible for her to possess such massive, pure physical strength, yet her power was outrageously formidable!
Furthermore, her martial techniques were accompanied by celestial phenomena bordering on divine abilities, their power truly extraordinary!
*Could it be a secret depository? Among the Six Secret Depositories of the Human Body, there must be one that holds physical strength!*
No sooner had the thought occurred to him than verdant fields and azure skies appeared around the maiden. Sky and earth spun and inverted, neutralizing Xu Ying's crushing primordial qi.
This maneuver was exceedingly exquisite, truly breathtaking.
Having neutralized his force, the maiden shouted, "You're not a Nuo master of the Cangwu Sect! The Cangwu Sect has no martial arts as subtle and profound as yours. Just who are you?"
Xu Ying retreated several steps further up the tree, using the True Cultivation of the Ba Snake to dissolve her force. Just as he was about to speak, a bright moon rose in the azure sky behind her, followed by a sun leaping above the horizon.
He instantly felt an overwhelming, mountain-toppling force rolling over him. His vitality and blood were suppressed by her presence, his circulation stalling and his breathing growing labored.
*It really is the power of a peculiar secret depository, unlocking the latent strength of the human body!*
Xu Ying hesitated no longer. He visualized Jiuyi, his body becoming like a towering peak.
Standing upon the parasol tree, he gave off an inexplicable, awe-inspiring presence—an unmoving sacred peak flanked by eight guarding summits, with ten thousand mountains bowing in homage.
This was precisely the divine ability he had comprehended upon entering the Dao.
Xu Ying raised a hand to meet her attack. The azure sky behind the maiden violently shuddered, then shattered; the bright moon crumbled to powder, the great sun split apart, and blazing true fire poured out in every direction!
The maiden felt as though countless great mountains were revolving alongside Xu Ying's palm, bearing down upon her. Before the palm strike even connected, it crushed her primordial qi to pieces and shattered the strength circulating through her body!
The power of this strike was too immense. Everywhere the palm force reached, mountain forms seemed to loom, giving her the feeling that there was nowhere to retreat, nowhere to dodge, and nowhere to flee!
Alarmed, she sprang upward as a cloud ladder descended from the sky!
Stepping onto the cloud ladder, she leaped again, soaring into the air, and landed on another cloud ladder.
Her form was light and graceful. With several consecutive leaps, she vanished into the clouds, her voice drifting down from above: "Perverted scoundrel, peeping at me while I bathe! I'll definitely tell Her Imperial Majesty and have you sent to the palace as a eunuch! Second Aunt! Second Aunt! Someone peeped at me taking a bath!"
From high above, a woman's surprised voice replied, "Could such a thing be? Don't panic, Xiaodie. Later we'll have Eunuch Chen castrate him properly and send him into the palace as a eunuch."
Another voice called out, "Xiaodie, you've arrived just in time. These divine birds are vicious; come over here. Let me introduce you—this is Young Master Weiyang of the Yuan clan..."
Xu Ying had actually held back his power and refrained from delivering a fatal blow. Hearing this, he flared with rage and barked, "Yuan Qi! If both the Jiang family and the Xu family lose their bloodline, it's all your fault!"
Yuan Qi stammered, "Lord Bell also said it..."
The bronze bell said, "I spoke via divine sense transmission; outsiders couldn't hear me. Don't panic, Ah Ying. You've opened the Mud Pill secret depository. Even if you're truly made a eunuch, it can grow back."
Yuan Qi nodded vigorously. "A minor scratch, not worth mentioning."
Xu Ying ignored the two idiots. Looking upward, he murmured, "Brother Yuan once said that among flight techniques, the Guo clan's Heaven-Soaring Cloud Ladder Technique is the most exquisite. Could this be the Heaven-Soaring Cloud Ladder?"
Suddenly, a scream rang out. Someone plummeted from the parasol tree, smashed to pieces on the ground. Above, someone shouted, "Don't try to catch the fledgling phoenix! Those divine birds will kill!"
Several more bodies fell, not even struggling on the way down—plainly corpses!
"Stop trying to capture the phoenix! Bastards, you're ruining the comprehension for everyone!"
Quiet returned to the tree. Xu Ying quietly climbed up the parasol tree. Though this parasol tree was not as spectacular as the giant locust tree, it was still extraordinary, with broad branches sprawling in all directions.
Upon the parasol tree bloomed trumpet-shaped parasol flowers, already in full blossom. Clustered by the dozens, they looked like cheerful troupes blowing trumpets together.
The blossoms were enormous. Xu Ying saw several people sitting inside the petals, sketching the distant divine birds.
One divine bird possessed two necks, two heads, and four wings, steeped in an ancient, primordial ferocity—a creature exceedingly rare. When its feathers unfurled, unique patterns appeared, harboring a profound aura: this was an image of the Great Dao!
"Divine creatures possess Dao images; comprehending them can yield divine abilities," the bronze bell said. "Like Little Qi, they are divine creatures with awakened bloodlines. In the past, they might have been inconspicuous strange birds, but recently the primordial bloodlines within them have begun awakening, transforming them into Dapengs, crested eagles, Bifangs, and other divine birds!"
Hearing this, Xu Ying quickly lowered his voice. "Lord Bell, I've lived in Lingling for so long, so why haven't I ever encountered these bloodline-awakened divine birds before? Why have so many suddenly popped up recently?"
The bronze bell guessed, "Most likely, it has to do with the appearance of the phoenix. When a phoenix is young, it is still weak and requires Dao-guarding divine birds to protect it as it grows. Once the phoenix reaches adulthood, it has no natural predators, and Dao-guarding birds are no longer needed."
It reasoned, "It's almost certainly because of this phoenix. Sensing danger, it awakened the primordial bloodlines of these strange birds to make them protect it. I once heard my master say that a phoenix possesses the power to awaken the bloodlines of other strange birds."
Xu Ying spotted Yuan Weiyang and Uncle Xiao and was about to head over, but seeing the slightly chubby maiden he had just clashed with beside them, he immediately abandoned the idea.
Beside Yuan Weiyang stood a beautiful woman and a dashing, handsome young man who appeared to be husband and wife—likely the Second Aunt and uncle of that maiden named Xiaodie.
Xu Ying turned on his heel and walked away, putting plenty of distance between them. Although the Mud Pill secret depository granted boundless human vitality, if they possessed some secret technique that prevented it from growing back, wouldn't he be crying tears of blood?
Xu Ying had no intention of taking that risk.
Yuan Weiyang also noticed him and wondered with mild surprise, "Why isn't Demon King Xu coming this way? I was planning to introduce a few acquaintances to him."
Noticing Xu Ying's gaze, the beautiful woman gestured toward the chubby maiden with her chin and whispered, "Xiaodie, is that the perverted scoundrel?"
Seeing Xu Ying, anger surged through the chubby maiden, and she moved to charge at him. The beautiful woman quickly warned, "Don't act rashly. There are too many divine birds here, and they harbor immense hostility. If you fight here, they might misunderstand and attack you. Against so many divine birds, even we couldn't guarantee our safety."
The handsome man smiled. "We can deal with him once he climbs down."
Yuan Weiyang listened, feeling baffled.
Uncle Xiao whispered, "Young Master, you had best give up any thought of clearing up the misunderstanding."
Yuan Weiyang also lowered his voice: "I'm just puzzled. In such a short span of time, Demon King Xu has committed another crime. His crime rate is truly fast."
Xu Ying continued climbing higher. Divine birds grew more numerous and increasingly ferocious, their massive bodies still as their oversized heads swiveled to fix their gazes on the ascending youth.
These divine birds radiated ruthless, fearsome auras, looking thoroughly unapproachable.
Fewer people came up this high to observe; many Nuo masters hid inside the floral chambers of the parasol blossoms, afraid to show their faces.
Xu Ying felt puzzled until he saw a divine bird lift a talon, beneath which lay a breathless Nuo master of the Cangwu Sect. The divine bird impaled the corpse onto a broken branch—a sight painful even to look at.
Judging by their size, however, they had likely awakened their bloodlines not long ago, just like Yuan Qi. The difference was that Yuan Qi's awakening had occurred naturally through cultivation and remained incomplete, whereas their bloodlines had been awakened by the phoenix, fully and completely!
They were not like Yuan Qi. Yuan Qi was a demon who possessed spiritual sapience and acted more like a human.
These creatures were powerful, ferocious, and purely feral.
"Ah Ying, something isn't right," the bronze bell vibrated with a ring. "There are far too many Dao-guarding divine birds, and none of them have awakened sapience—they only know to protect the phoenix! That the phoenix didn't have time to unlock their intellect can only mean it has encountered an enemy. An enemy so formidable that the phoenix was forced to find as many strange birds as possible to awaken their bloodlines!"
Xu Ying's heart stirred, and he halted at once.
Using its remaining strength to awaken more birds was an act of survival.
And gathering so many divine birds in this parasol tree was choosing the most advantageous terrain for a final stand against its enemy!
Therefore, this place was bound to become a bloody battlefield!
*Retreat! I can't wade into these muddy waters!*
Just as the thought crossed Xu Ying's mind, a melodious voice suddenly sounded beside his ear: "Is that you? You rode the wind to my side just now. I beseech your aid."
Xu Ying's heart skipped a beat. Looking up through layers of parasol leaves and blossoms, he saw a seven-colored fledgling phoenix perched high upon a branch, tilting its head to look down at him with lively, intelligent eyes.
Xu Ying said aloud, "I can barely protect myself; I can't help you. Farewell."
He turned and leaped down, but the fledgling phoenix's voice drifted after him, faint and wistful: "Three thousand years ago, when I had just hatched, I saw you."
Landing on a parasol branch, Xu Ying's body froze. He turned his head with great effort and said raspy-voiced, "Three thousand years ago... you saw me?"
"Yes. Your appearance has never changed." Those wise eyes gazed upon him.
Chapter 67